The Watchmaker's Son
by Adrian Thoreson
Summary: A murder on the streets of Chicago has been traced to Joshua, a 16 year old orphan boy, who has a problem with authority. The cops are on his trail as he is on the run, but what they don't know is that the murder wasn't him. He was framed by a gang of thieves called the Gateway, but he has a secret weapon. He can talk to the dead.
1. Prologue

Prologue

I pulled my leather jacket over my shoulders trying to keep the cold air out. _I hate winter._ I thought to myself. _The cold is always there and nothing seems to be alive. _I stuffed my hands into my pockets, attempting to keep my hands from freezing and falling off. _Well, at least I only have two more blocks to go. _I think as I look down the dimly lit street.

That's when I notice it, the tapping. The slow methodical pitter patter of someone with a purpose walking behind me. _How did I miss that? _I thought. I turned around to see where it was coming from, only to find not a soul to be there. _What? How... where did they go?_ _I guess it was just my imagination. _I continued to walk down the street, thinking that the footsteps wouldn't follow. I was wrong, so wrong.

The tapping continued as I walked, making an uneasy feeling wash over me. _Who is this person? Why are they following me? Are they following me? _Suddenly the thought occured to me, _Are they going to kill me? _At that thought I began to run, faster than I've ever run before, and sure enough the tapping came with me, from a trickle to a roar.

The footsteps seemed to be heavy and hard, they could not have been from a woman so I was being followed by a man, and a very large one at that. The cold air seemed to punch me in the face as I ran. _One more block. _I thought, _Then I'm home fre... _Just as I thought this I realized the footsteps had stopped and I stood there in total silence.

_This isn't good, not good at all. _I ran faster. and just as I was passing the dark alley behind my apartment building a large hand reached out and grabbed me by the collar and pulled me into the darkness. Just then I remembered the phone in my pocket. _Damnit, well it's too late now I'm already dead._

"Hey there, girl. Why you runnin'?" The man asked in a deep growling voice.

"Pl-please don't hurt me. J-just let me go." I said in a shaky voice.

"Now, why would I do that," He replied, "when I've got a very important job for ya?" I shuttered at the sound of his voice. I reached for the ground with my toes, but he seemed to be holding me just out of reach from it. "Trying to abandon me are ya? I can fix that." He reached the other one of his large hulk hands over my mouth and pushed me up against the brick alley wall. "You ready to do your job?"

I tried to let out a scream but his hand muffled any sound I made. _No, no, please god no. _I prayed in my head.

"God can't hear you." the man said as he read my mind. My eyes widened at this, when his hands moved quickly and snapped my neck with a pop, and I fell... dead.


	2. Ch 1: I'm Officially a Convicted Felon

**Chapter 1:** I'm Officially a Convicted Felon

Joshua

Sirens blared in the night outside big red. Big red is the barn that was converted into a dorm at Charlie's children's home. I was sent here after I broke parole by getting caught shop-lifting a bag of chips from a convenient store. I would have been sent to Juvie, but the police captain seems to think I have 'potential'. _"You don't have to be a criminal Joshua, if you work hard you can grow to be the great man I know you to be." _I imitated his voice in my head.

I climbed out of bed curious at to why the cops were here. I slipped on my old ripped jeans and pulled my cubs shirt over my head. Quietly I sneaked down the wooden steps to the ground floor. I walked to the door and pushed my ear to it trying to hear what they were saying.

"-can't take him he's a good kid. I can vouch for him, he was here last night, all night." It was Charlie talking to one of the police officers.

The cop replied with, "Unfortunately, that won't matter. we found evidence that Joshua Price was at the scene. We need to take him in."

_What? What are they talking about? _I thought to my self. I pushed my ear back to the door to listen some more.

"-on't believe that he could be responsible for murder" said Charlie. _Murder? I need to get out of here._ I ran back up stairs to my bunk and pulled the large trunk from underneath it. Quickly I unlocked it and it swung open. _Hopefully, Charlie can buy me some time._

"What are you doing?" the words came from above me.

_Dexter, damnit, go back to sleep. _His curly head popped up over the edge of the top bunk, "Nothing Dex." I said as I pulled my backpack and some clothes out of my trunk.

"Are you leaving? But you just got hear a week ago." He questioned.

"Just go back to sleep Dex." He hopped off his bed and landed on the other side of the bunk.

"I'm going with you." He said as he pulled his trunk out from under the other side of the bed.

"No, your not." I said annoyed. I stuffed some more stuff into my bag, and Dex seemed to do the same. "I said your not coming!" I whispered loudly.

"I wasn't asking. Plus you don't have the key to the food cupboard." He smiled holding up a small brass key.

I sighed angrily, "Fine, but don't expect me to be your mamma. I won't be responsible for ya." I said as we finished packing. "Come on." I said as we sneaked down the stairs. When we got to the bottom I took a left away from the door.

"Where are you going? That's the only way outa here." Dex whispered confused.

"That's what they want you to think." I said smirking. I ran my fingers through my curly dark hair as I quietly walked down the hall to one of the old barn walls. As we approached the wall the air got colder.

"What is that? Why did it get so cold?" Dex asked

"That is our way out." I said as I pushed on one of the wall pannels out of the way making a three foot tall opening to the frozen world outside.

"Woah..." Dex whispered in astonishment. I got on my hands and knees and crawled out into the snow.


	3. Ch 2: The Third Party

**Chapter 2: **The Third Party

The cold air blowing against my face felt like a hundred small needles stabbing me. I turned around to see what was taking Dexter so long, only to find him stuck in an awkward position in the opening in the barn wall. "Help? Sorry, I'm a bit tall." he whispered. I rolled my eyes and helped him get out of our little escape hatch. As soon as he was out I pushed the wall panel back into place making it seem as if nothing had happened.

I looked over at the two police cars parked in front of Big Red. Charlie was arguing with one of them. _I need to hurry, I'm running out of time._ I thought to myself.

"What are they doing here?" Asked Dex.

"I don't know," I lied, "but I'm not gonna stay and find out" I said and began walking to the old farm house where the girls stayed. Keep out of sight never seemed to be hard for me, so hiding from the eyes of the cops came especially easy. As we approached the door of the house I checked to make sure that Dex was still behind me and to my surprise he was right on my tail.

I opened the door and let Dex go in first just in case there was someone waiting for us. Luckily there wasn't and I walked in after him. When I got in Dex was already at the food cupboard key in hand. "Hurry up, we don't have much time." I pleaded.

"Alright, alright, calm down." he said. He opened the door and we both began shoveling canned food into our backpacks. Unfortunately, neither of us thought to stand guard, cause if we had she would have never been able to sneak up on us.

"What do you two think your doing?" said Amilia. Dexter and I groaned simultaneously. She gasped, "Are you trying to escape?"

Dex and I looked at each other then back to her and both, unconvincingly, said, "No."

"Okay fine we are, but don't tell Charlie." I begged.

"I won't," she said. Dex and I sighed with relief. "because I'm going with you." That came as a surprise to both of us.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. What makes you think I'll take you with me, Amy? I already have to take this bozo over here-" I replied

"Hey!" exclaimed Dex

"No offense." I said. Dex just scoffed and rolled his eyes at me.

"Because if you don't let me come, I'll scream and you two will be caught. And don't call me Amy!" She said confidently

_I really don't have time for this. _I thought

"No, definitely not I a-" Dexter started

"Fine, but hurry." I said and she scurried up stairs to pack.

"What?!" Asked Dex.

"Just keep packing food, we'll need it." I commanded.

"Whatever." He retorted. We continued to shovel food and eventually Amy came down and helped. Suddenly we heard some yelling and I went to the window to see what was happening, only to find one of the cops holding Charlie down against the hood of the cop car, handcuffed, and the other walking into the building holding his face.

"Times up" I said, and we ran out of the house onto to the road and just kept going.


	4. Ch 3: Gone a Bit Ghastly

**Chapter 3:** Gone a Bit Ghasty

Rachel

When your dead, the first thing you notice is your heartbeat, well lack thereof. Most people said there would be a white light and you had to walk into it, but there isn't. Not for people who still had something to live for. There are some ups of being dead though, walking through stuff is cool and you can eavesdrop on people without them knowing.

Unfortunately, I had the great idea of following my body. I watched as the cops looked through the crime scene and I was there when the doctors did the autopsy. I watched them cut me open and pull everything out; I'm only glad I'll never have to go through that again. After my autopsy I decided to part with my body and see what the cops had on my killer.

I walked into the police lieutenant's office to see what I could find. Fortunately I discover I can only touch and move things if there are no living person can see. I sat down in the LT's chair and began looking through his files. _A theft, a robbery, even grand theft auto, but no murder. _I thought. Then Lieutenant Thompson walked in holding a file. He threw it on his desk and walked back out.

I looked down at the file, "Finally!" I said. I opened the folder and saw a picture of my body the neck twisted and bent in the wrong direction. I shuddered. When I first woke up, I thought I was still alive until I found it sitting there crumpled on the ground in the alley. I threw the paper away from me and kept looking through the pages of information until I found another picture.

This one was of someone else, but I couldn't see who it was. His face was covered by a sticky note that said _Murder Suspect_. I almost didn't move the note, I thought _I don't ever want to see that man again. _But my curiosity got the better of me and I pulled off the sticky not. I was expecting the gruesome face of the man who killed me, but I only found the face of a hispanic teenage boy. He couldn't have been over 16 years old.

Anger welled up inside me. "WHAT! I died and the only person they have is this-THIS KID!" without me even touching them the papers on the lieutenant's desk flew off. "AAAAAGH!" I screamed causing the lights to flicker. Realizing I needed to calm down I began taking deep breaths, despite not actually being able to breath.

_This kid is innocent, I need to help him or the cops will throw him in jail. _I looked back through the file on the floor trying to find out where this kid, Joshua Price, is. He ended up staying at an old farm turn children's home owned by some guy named Charlie. _Now how do I get there?_ I thought. _I could just hitch a ride with one of these cops._

I ran out of the office through the door and toward the police garage hoping that one of these cops was headed my way. Luckily there was. A short gentleman and a husky looking officer were talking about the lieutenant ordering them to go pick up some kid at a charlie's children's home, so I hopped in the back seat.

The drive took a bit longer than I expected, but when we got there, there was a man was waiting for us. Presumably Charlie started talking to one of the officers, but I didn't pay much attention to their conversation. Another thing I learned while being a ghost is that we cannot enter a building without a door or a window being opened, so I had to find a way into this barn and quick.

I walked around the building few times but found nothing, but I did notice a light in one of the windows in the house nearby. On my way over I heard a ruckus happening by the cop cars. The man, Charlie, had got himself in handcuffs and one of the cops had gotten inside the barn. I began walking back towards the barn, but I heard something behind me. Footsteps on a road. Running ones that were too small to be an adult's.

I turned around quickly and ran after the footsteps. They had to be his, no other kid would be running away right when the cops come looking. They would have no reason to. He would.


	5. Ch 4: Ghost Encounters of the Forth Kind

**Chapter 4: **Ghost Encounters of the Third Kind

I felt bad having to follow these kids. I knew he couldn't see me, but I could tell that Joshua was on edge. He acted as if he knew I was following them. As these kids ran I followed suit. They kept running for a few days and only slept for a couple of hours each time. This dayley routine was a drain on them and it wouldn't last too much longer.

Watching them sleep was the worst part. I never thought I'd miss something so regular, so ordinary. I guess I took advantage of it when it was there. I looked down at them, they lie there motionless for hours on end, except for Joshua, he sturred restless at night. This night it seemed to be worse than ever.

He rolled and shook in his sleeping bag. Suddenly he woke, shaking in shock. I walked over to him, and he looked at me! I stopped and shuddered at the feeling. I'd grown accustomed to the feel of people looking straight through me, but this was different. He was looking right at me, not behind me, at me.

"C-ca-can you see m-me?" I said shakily. He seemed to calm down as if he had remembered where he was.

"Um, yeah?" He whispered cautiously. My mind felt like it was exploding.

"_You_ can see me?" My thoughts began to race and my hands began to shake. "Oh my God! Finally someone can see me! Finall- wait if you can see me and hear me, why didn't you say anything?"

He sighed and stretched his arms. "Well, I can't be talking to ghosts that no one else can see, can I. They would have thought I was crazy." He said gesturing toward his friends.

"I guess that makes sense. Wait, why is it that you can see me and no one else can?" I asked.

"I'm what people call a medium. My parents were too... before they were killed." He whispered with a sad face.

"A medium? I've never heard of one of those." I said

He groaned. "I'm not going to explain this to a nooby ghost, like you. I got tired of doing that a long time ago."

I felt my face heat up, "Well you better hurry up and explain cause I'm the whole reason your out here!" I yelled. I put my hand to my mouth, realizing what I had said.

"The reason I'm out he- Wait a second! You're the one that the cops think I killed aren't you!" he yelled. Causing the girl to turn over. He quieted down to a whisper again. "This is your fault! I had a good thing back at Charlie's, and you ruined all of that!" he whispered angrily.

"Hey! Don't blame me for dieing. Blame the douch that killed me." I replied.

"Whatever!" he said rolling over. His words felt like acid. I felt like I should go, but I still had to warn him.

"Hey kid." I said.

"Go away!" He demanded.

"Calm down," I pleaded, "I'm not trying to get you in trouble, I just want to help you catch the dude that's framing you."

"Framing me?" He sounded more curious.

"After I... woke up, I overheard a phone conversation between the ape-man who killed me and some guy he called the Gate Keeper." I explained.

"Damnit it's the Gateway." He scowled while sitting back up.

"The Gateway? Well, whatever- Anyway, they were talking about planting evidence to frame who they called... what was it? Oh, yeah! They called him The Watchmaker's Son. I'm guessing that's you." I continued.

"That means they figured out who I was. Damnit!" Joshua seemed angry.

"What is the Gateway, and what does it mean when they want you in jail?" I asked.

"Very bad things." He finished.

* * *

**Hey guys it's Adrian. I'm might leave a few authors notes down here over the next few months that I'll be writing. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to read this far and that if you like this kind of teenage fantasy go check out ****_The Chess Club _****by ****_Jeccabelle._**** She's a really good friend of mine, and an even better writer, so go check that out. I highly recommend it. So anyway, thanks for reading and hope you guys have good days forever. Peace out!**

** - Adrian Thoreson**


	6. Ch 5: The Big Bad Wolves

**Chapter 5: **The Big Bad Wolves

Joshua

I couldn't sleep last night after what happened with Rachel. I just sat next to our makeshift fire pit and watched the sun come up. _I need to figure out this thing with the Gateway._ I thought. _I could leave, but I can't just abandon Amy and Dex. _I pushed the thought out of my head. _I need find out who killed Rachel, then I'll be able to solve my little murder problem._

I looked down at Amy and Dex from where I was sitting. Dex slept awkwardly being that he was too tall for his sleeping bag, and most of his upper body stuck out. On the other hand, Amy seemed snug and comfortable in her sleeping bag. Her dark red hair was sprawled over the small, pink pillow that she had brought in her bag. Dex and I had no such idea, we just slept on our backpacks.

When Amy began to shuffle I realized I had been staring and averted my eyes. Dex through up his arms and let out a long yawn.

"Aaaaaaaah. What time is it?" He said rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. I looked down at my dad's old watch strapped to my wrist. This was the last thing I had from my parents. It was a present that my mother had given to my father on their anniversary. They died when I was twelve in a car accident. My father had fallen asleep at the wheel. They died along with a young orphan girl on impact of a large tree.

"Hey dude. The time?" Asked Dex. I snapped out of my little daydream and read my watch.

"6:30 according to my wa-" I chuckled when I noticed the state of Dex's hair. The blonde curls stuck strait up causing him to look like a Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe.

"What?" he asked

"Nothing." I said trying to hold back a smile. I was failing. I decided that this was a good time to start packing up. I reached over and touched Amy's shoulder to wake her up. Suddenly her arm swung up and her open hand struck me right in the face. The force was so strong it caused me to fall on my back with an, "Ugh!"

She sat up quickly, her eyes wide with the realization of what she had just done. She rushed over and knelt down next to me apologizing at a million words a minute.

"I'm so so so so so sorry. You scared me and I just- I-I-" She started. Amy's lips stopped moving when she had realized how close she had brought her face to mine. She blushed and turned around so that I couldn't see.

I sat up saying, "Hey... um... it's okay. I shouldn't have touched you in the first place. It's my fault." I looked over at Dexter who had a mischievous smile strung across his face. "Anyway," I said changing the subject, "it's time to pack up. We slept in and we lost a couple hours of daylight." Amy kept from looking at me and start packing her stuff without saying a word.

After that we all packed in silence until, suddenly, Rachel ran in through a brick wall with a panicked look. "There hear!" She yelled to me.

"Who?" I whispered.

"Two big thugs... with GUNS!"

I felt my heartbeat jump. I quickly turned around and yelled, "It's time to go!" but it was too late. They were already here.

"Looks like we found the three little pigs." Said one of the ape men.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry for bacon." said the other in a deep grave voice.


	7. Ch 6: Colonel Amy to the Rescue

**Chapter 6: **Colonel Amy to the Rescue

Amy let out a scream. It didn't help much, since I had picked somewhere that nobody would find us. One of the two men lumbered his way over to the other side of the alley, making sure to aim his gun in our direction.

"Any of youz tries to run away I'll put a hole in ya." Said the man with the very large machine gun. I slowly and carefully reach out and grabbed Dex and Amy's arms and pulled them behind me so that our backs were against the wall. Amy was shaking, her hand clung to my arm.

_I have to do something to get these guys to safety._ I thought.

"Now which one of youz guyz is Joshua Price?" asked the second man, he had a large scar on the jaw line. To me they seemed to look like brothers. They both had similar features but not enough to be siblings. It was the eyes. They were golden, like they were the eyes of a wolf coming onto it's prey. "Hey!" he yelled, "I asked youz a question!"

Before I could say anything Dex pushed my arm out of the way and blurted out, "I am!" He paused awkwardly, "Th-that's m-me."

The first man, the man without the scar, chuckled and grabbed Dex and pulled him out of the way. "Now that we have youz," he smiled gleefully, "we can get rid of your little friends here." Amy squeezed my arm, hard, but before the men could even lift their guns, the one with the scar yelped in pain.

_What's going on?_ I thought. Then it came to me, _Rachel! _Scar lifted his bowed head and opened eyes that seemed to glow the same blue that Rachel's spirit body was made of.

"Let the kids go!" Rachel said in a voice that sounded like both of them were overlapped.

"Hey man? Whats goin' on with your voice and your eyes?" The other man asked, "And why do ya all the sudden want to help these muts. That's going against the Boss."

Rachel/Scar lift their gun. "Let them go!" they yelled.

"Woah, woah. What's wrong with youz?" asked the thug. Seeing that Rachel/Scar wasn't going to drop their gun he lowered his and let free Dex's arm. Rachel/Scar gestured for us to run out the alley behind them. Amy looked at me confused, and I nodded. Dex, Amy, and I all picked up as much of our stuff as we could carry and ran out of the alley as fast as we could.

We all ran as hard as we could. Just after we left that alley we heard a gunshot and a scream of pain. _I don't know who those guys were, but I know I'll be seeing them again. _We ran until I knew that Dex and Amy couldn't take anymore. We stopped and rested.

"What the hell was that?!" demanded Dexter. He glared at me.

"I don't know." I lied unconvincingly.

"Don't 'I don't know' me!" he yelled, "Two huge thugs come after us asking for you and you want me to believe that you have no idea why!"

I cringed. His words felt like molten metal. _I can't lie to them any more. _I thought. "Ok fine. The truth is that a gang called the Gateway is after me cause of my dead parents, so they framed me for a murder! That's why the cops were there back at Charlie's place and my guess is that when the Gateway found out that the cops didn't pick me up, they sent those goons back there to catch me! There! That's the truth!" I yelled back at him.

Amy and Dex's faces were full of surprise. Amy's started turning white. "Oh my god."

"What were you thinking when you decided to bring us into this mess?" asked Dexter.

"I was thinking that I didn't have time to argue and that I needed to get out of there, and don't forget you asked to come along." I spit the words at him. They felt like acid in my mouth.

"Hey, I didn't know you were being chased by both the cops and a gang." The volume in his voice started to raise up again.

"And why the hell did you say you were me back there? What if they wanted to kill me not take me hostage?!" I'm pretty sure I heard Amy say something but I was too angry to care. Dex and I kept arguing, but our words became a blur of red.

"Shut Up!" yelled Amy. Both Dex and I stopped in our tracks. "We don't have time for this, we've got to move!" she commanded. Dex and I silently agreed, but I knew this argument wasn't over. "Josh, do you have some that you know we can go?"

I thought for a moment. "Yeah, there was this old theater my parents and I would stay in when the Gateway was looking for us. We called it our safe-house." Looking at Amy she seemed to have a new, more confident look to her. I confusedly looked toward Dex for answers, but he just shrugged.

"Ok, do you know how to get there from here?" She asked.

I looked around at where we were for a second. "Umm... I think so, yeah. It's about six blocks from here, but I know a shortcut up this way." I pointed up the street.

"Good." She said and started walking the way I had told her. I looked at Dex for answers again, but he just shrugged and started following her.

"Okay." I said confused, then I followed my new friends.


	8. Ch 7: The Wolfe Brothers

**Chapter: **The Wolfe Brothers

Rachel

The feeling of possessing someone was almost empowering, but also the scariest thing I've ever done. I could feel every aspect of his living soul. I saw his whole life pass before my lifeless eyes. All his childhood memories, the ones he cherished, and also the ones he wished he could forget. This man's life was full of anger and hate. I felt sorry for him.

I looked through the eyes of this man, who I now know to Anthony Wolfe Jr. He lived in a New Jersey household of gang members. His father had abandoned him and his brother, to live with his prostitute mother. Who soon after died of a heroine overdose. Him and his brother were put in the system and were in and out of foster homes.

"It's us against the world." His brother, Bobby, would always say. The last time he had said that was the night they ran away from their foster home to join a gang known as the Gateway. At the time Tony as the called him was only twelve, and his brother, sixteen. These two brothers blew up the ranks in the gang. Tony had his first blood at sixteen as was custom in the Gateway.

As soon as Tony was twenty, they were the main henchmen/body guards of a former cartel head known as The Crick. He's know for being a psychopathic serial killer who breaks peoples necks with his bare hands, hense the name crick, because he puts a crick in your neck. This was the man who killed me.

Another thing they don't tell you when you become a ghost is that when you possess someone you not only take over their bodies and their mind, but you take attributes from their personality. In my case I could feel the anger of this man's thirty-six years building up inside me. I felt all his pain and anguish along with my own.

I kept my gun trained on Bobby.

"What's going on Tony? Talk to me, tell me what's wrong." Pleaded his brother.

"Shut up!" I yelled a little bit too loud. My face, well, his face felt hot.

"Come on man. It's me Bobby." His face softened, "It's us against the world, remember?"

"Shut Up Bobby!" My voice cracked. I could feel everything Tony was feeling. Those five words almost mad me collapse. The powere in them was strong.

"Don't do anything stupid. If we don't come back with that kid, the Boss wil-" I didn't even let him finish as soon as he mentioned their boss, Crick, the man who broke my neck without even a second thought, this mans anger and my own exploded inside me. I pulled hard on the trigger, and watched as Bobby's blood splattered all over the wall behind him.

This is when tony started to push. This is when he push me out. I struggled to hold on, to give the kids some more time. I held on until I realized what I had just done. I let go, because I had realized that I had brought another soul into this hellish world. Because I was inside of Tony, a murderer by trade, it had numbed me, but know I could feel it.

So, I just let go. I felt every piece of me get ripped out of Tony's body. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced, but I deserved it. When I was out my body felt like it was falling apart. I was fading, but I had a little time to watch as Tony ran over to his dieing brother. Then I fell unconscious. My last thought was, _I didn't know ghost could fall unconscious. Wait... what if they can't? _then I was out.

* * *

**Hey guys, so I've decided that I'm going to put this story on hiatus after the 10th chapter, because by that time I'm going to have to get ready for school. Don't worry, after school starts I'm going to be writing a chapter a week. Every Saturday is when I'm going to be posting the new chapters. This is just a warning so brace yourselves. Also, again I recommend a good friend of mine's story, ****_The Chess Club _****by Jeccabelle. She's an amazing writer and I highly recommend you to to read her work. Anyways, I'm out!**

**-Adrian Thoreson 7/15/14**


	9. Ch 8: The Man With the Golden Eyes

**Chapter 8:** The Golden Eyed Man

Rachel

Darkness seemed to envelope me. It seemed to be the only thing I could see or feel. It was the only thing that was there, but only for a while. Out of the darkness came a blinding light. _So this what they mean by the light at the end of the tunnel_. I thought.

The light seemed to grow larger and white out the very darkness that held me captive. _Is this heaven?_ I thought.

"Unfortunately not, Rachel." Said a booming, but soothing voice. The sound seemed to come from everywhere, but also from one place. I looked to see, but it was too bright. "Oops sorry about the light." Said the voice.

The light that surround him seemed to fade. Out of this gleaming wall of bright stepped a tall man with golden eyes. He seemed to be wearing what looked like a white lab coat.

"Who are you?" I asked, completely confused.

"You may call me Robert." He said as he ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair. "And just to get this over with, no, I'm not God, or Allah, or whatever, I'm not an angle, I'm not some sort of omniscient being that watches over all of humanity… blah blah blah." He said arrogantly.

"Okay…" I said even more confused. "Then what are you?"

"Okay good, cut right to the chase." He said sitting into a chair. _Wait, where did that come from?_ I thought. "Sit." He said. Looking behind me I saw that an identical chair had appeared behind me. I sat down and the chair seemed to conform to my comfort.

"Now, to start off, your dead." He said.

"Yeah, well, I know that." I rolled my eyes at him. "It's kind of hard not to notice the guy strangling the life out of you then waking up to your own body." I scoffed.

His face contorted in confusion, "What?"

"What do you mean, what?" I glared at him. "I died then I woke up next to my body then I was helping some medium kid help me catch my kille-"

"Wait so you aren't coming straight from your death?" He looked concerned.

"No… wait why would I come here?" I felt like this guy was messing with me.

"So you were still on earth after you died." His face contorted more.

"Yeah, so what, and you still haven't answer my question." I was starting to get angry.

"So you were…" He began to mumble his words. "… but how are you…."

"Hello?" He continued mumbling at me. "You know I'm still here." No response. I stood up "Hello!" I yelled.

"SHUT UP!" His body brightened and I felt a force push me back into my chair. Fear ran throughout my body and could feel it shaking. He obviously noticed and his face softened. He sighed, "Sor…sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Wh-what are you?" I asked with fear still pulsing through my body.

He sighed again. "I'm dead, like you. But I've been able to move on. Where you are is a prison, or a bridge, depending on the way you look at it. By what you've told me so far, I can tell that you're already on the way to crossing the bridge.

"A bridge huh. How exactly do I cross." I asked.

"By finding the link that is holding you to earth and breaking it. This link can be almost anything. For some people it's an object, and for others it's a person, but most of the time It's a feeling, of your life being unfinished."

"Also the fact that you didn't come to me right after you died means that you died earlier than you were supposed to." He said.

"Earlier than I was supposed to?"

"Anyway, you need to find what's keeping you there cause where you are is unsafe." He warned. Suddenly the white room seemed to flicker between here and the alleyway.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Damnit! The connection's going out. Okay, I have to do this fast so listen carefully. As you know, your unfinished business is with your murderer. You need to catch him with Joshua if you want to move on." The room flickered again.

"Wait I can't do this by myself." I pleaded.

"The farther across the bridge you get the more powerful… use these pow…" The world was flickering in and out. "find yo… killer. Good lu…" He finally faded out and I was back in the alleyway that I was murdered in.

_Damnit! _I thought. _I have to find Joshua and find out what he thinks of all of this._ Then I started walking down the road. _I'll find him and catch the bastard that killed me._

* * *

**Thanks you guys for reading, Sorry about the huge break in the story, but I'm still planning on stopping after chapter 10 for school. Anyway I'm out. Peace!**

** -Adrian Thoreson 7/28/14**


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